Robert De Niro has started a $1m (£660,000) legal action over a photograph taken of him and fellow actor Sean Penn blowing out candles at their joint birthday party.

The picture was taken at a party in De Niro's New York loft apartment in the city's fashionable TriBeCa district, thrown to celebrate the shared birthday of the two Hollywood stars in August 2001.

Photo agency Celebrity Vibe, whose co-owner Jeffrey Boyard is named in the action, put the picture up for sale.

According to De Niro's lawyer Tom Harvey, who filed the lawsuit in Manhattan supreme court, the photo appeared in at least one newspaper and a national magazine.

"Our contention, as we hope to prove in the lawsuit, is that someone snuck into a private residence and took unauthorised pictures for profit," said Mr Harvey, according to an Associated Press report today.

Mr Boyard maintained that his agency had done nothing wrong and that their photographer had been invited to the party.

De Niro, who has won Oscars for his roles in The Godfather: Part II and Raging Bull, was celebrating his 58th birthday, while Sean Penn was 41.

Model Naomi Campbell successfully sued the Mirror in March over an article in the paper which exposed her treatment for drug addiction, accompanied by pictures of the supermodel leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Chelsea, London.

Campbell, who referred in court to her past relationship with De Niro, was awarded £3,500 when a judge ruled the tabloid had breached her confidence by revealing her treatment.

The Mirror has appealed against the verdict and a decision on the case is expected soon.